Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Hepcat in the Funky Hat with Sonny Chiba

Hepcat in
the Funk Hat: The 2,000,000 Yen Arm

Director:
Kinji Fukasaku

Year: 1961

There wouldn’t
be any reason to really watch this enjoyable black and white pastry of a film
that only has a running time of 52 minutes and likely was the second or third
film in triple features other than the fact that it was at the genesis of two
great careers that were to follow. Sonny Chiba aka Shin’ichi Chiba had recently
graduated from university and in a talent search in 1960 Toei Studio had
signed him to a contract. What he had going for him at that point – as his
endurable charisma was still a number of years away – was a great athleticism.
In high school he had been a terrific gymnast and had possibly been slotted for
an Olympic berth before a bad back forced him out. Then in university he began
training in martial arts and so when Toei took him on he was put into films
that very much displayed his physical skills – though again nothing like he
showed later in the 1970’s when he really became a star with the many great
action films that he oversaw. Here he is a mere contract player, lean and still
learning his craft.

Directing
the film was another person who was just beginning his career with a number of
secondary studio films and it wasn’t really until 1967 when Kinji Fukasaku made
the bizarre Black Lizard in which he was able to create his unique vision. Chiba
appeared in Fukasaku’s first film in 1961, Wandering Detective, and they were to collaborate
on a number of films over the next decade.

It would be
nice to say that in watching this film there were hints of great promise for
both men but though the film has a lot of verve and energy I can’t say I
spotted it if it was there. But what it
is is a spiffy little film with big American convertibles, a jazz soundtrack, funky
hats, kamikaze taxi drivers, baseball and constant movement. Nobody is still
for more than a few moments and Chiba in particular makes every motion an
athletic one even if it is merely him sitting down. You sort of want to give
him a strong dose of Ritalin to calm him down. A top high school pitcher is
being courted by a number of professional baseball teams but when he suddenly disappears from sight a
female reporter (Hitomi Nakahara) starts snooping around as does Ichiro (Chiba)
whose father is a detective and he wants to follow in the old man’s gumshoes
and also romance the girl. It turns out that gangsters are involved and Chiba
swings into action by knocking quite a few heads and rescuing the damsel. In
truth, Chiba looks so much younger and slimmer than I am used to that I wasn’t
sure if he was the pitcher or Ichiro until the action begins and then there isn’t
much doubt.

Our facebook group “selfless” is spending this month spreading awareness on prostate cancer & research with a custom t-shirt design. Purchase proceeds will go to cancer.org, as listed on the shirt and shirt design.